An absolute sensation in 1996 – in big part due to Renée Zellweger’s “holy shit, who’s that” breakout performance – Jerry Maguire marked perhaps the last uncomplicatedly enjoyable, “normie” leading man part for Tom Cruise; his next film was Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, which sent his life and career in, well, weirder directions. He got an Oscar nom for playing the sports agent trying to be a better man while Cuba Gooding Jr. won for his supporting turn as the savvy NFL player instructing Jerry to “show me the money!” As for writer-director Cameron Crowe, back then he was still on his A-game, reliably proving that movies could be both crowd-pleasing and creatively ambitious. – Kimberley Jones
